In the Small
by Michael Hague

    IN THE SMALL by Michael Hague
    Category:  Manga/Comics/Pop Fiction
    Age Recommendation:  Grades 6+
    Release Date:  5/1/08
    Publisher:  Little, Brown
    Reviewed by:  Candace Cunard
    Rating:  4 Stars


    The premise of IN THE SMALL is fairly simple.  Suddenly, a blue light washes over the entire earth and all of
    humanity is reduced to one-sixth of its original size.  Nothing but humans are affected, and those who do survive the
    initial transformation are left to deal with the chaos of a world built for people too big.  Suddenly, even the smallest
    animals and the simplest natural phenomena can cause great danger.
          
    The story revolves around a brother and sister, Mouse and Beatrix (Beat for short), who together gather up groups
    of survivors and marshal them to create a new society.  Beat is at home with her mother and grandfather when the
    transformation occurs, and the three of them begin to turn their house into a sustainable community, inviting neighbors
    and strangers alike to share the space with them.  

    Mouse is in the city working at his father’s business when the transformation occurs.  He has a talent for seeing things
    before they happen, or at least sensing them, something that his father has never understood.  But even his father
    cannot deny the accuracy of the premonition that hits Mouse an hour before the transformation, and afterwards,
    Mouse becomes the natural leader of a group of people who make a pilgrimage through the city and back to the
    house that Beat is busy turning into a thriving community.
          
    The one thing that makes this book stand out from all of the other stories of humans suddenly shrunken and at the
    mercy of nature and the elements is the graphic novel format.  Hague’s illustrations add to the sense of terror and
    urgency felt by the characters whose formerly-docile world has quickly turned against them.  In addition, his
    characters present several musings about the cause of this transformation, several of which appear to be
    environmental in nature.  Beat suggests that this is a way of Mother Earth getting back at a species that has abused
    her for too long.  

    The cause of the transformation is not decided upon during the course of the graphic novel, and although the main
    conflict is resolved for the time being, the story’s ending opens up a whole new series of questions that a sequel will
    surely address.